It is well known that college students crave comfort foods.

Jack Butler of Hillsdale College reports on the latest campus craze, combining the traditions of “feel good” activism and a college favorite:

The dark side of chocolate is a social justice cause de jour at many universities across the nation.

They’ve devoted informational websites, guest lectures, public relations campaigns, and entire courses to highlight chocolate’s bittersweet origins, promising to generate outrage against Big Chocolate and ruin the M&M experience for college kids forever.

Oft-cited statistics note that child labor runs rampant in West Africa, where roughly 70 percent of the world’s cocoa is grown. And the three big American companies that buy the allegedly ill-gotten cocoa – Mars, Hershey’s and Nestle – become the villains.

“Is my chocolate slave-free?” asks a UC San Diego “Stop Chocolate Slavery” website, which notes under its “take action” page that “if you are angered, shocked, sickened … by the use of slave labor to make a luxury product for the world’s rich, then say so. … Tell the chocolate companies that exploit the slavery, and the feckless legislators who have thus far let them get away with it … that you won’t be buying their products or giving them your votes until they’ve changed their ways.”

An October 2012 event at Georgetown University dubbed “Chocolate & Environmental and Social Justice Issues” delved into the perceived evils of Big Chocolate.

A Santa Clara University “Truth About Chocolate” website argues that the three biggest chocolate manufacturers in America should be held accountable for child labor in West Africa.

Critics also often dismiss Big Chocolate’s efforts to address child labor issues as largely half-hearted, ineffective, and lip service, among other complaints.

But a 2012 Fair Labor Association report on Nestle’s West Africa dealings found the company is “well positioned to make a large, positive impact on the livelihoods of workers in the cocoa supply chain.”

Hershey’s recently introduced a line of so-called fair-traded chocolate, and also launched an outreach and educational program in West Africa to teach farmers best practices and child labor laws.

In 2011, Mars Chocolate partnered with Fairtrade International and announced a commitment to use only certified cocoa by 2020 and to “invest heavily in (West Africa) and other major cocoa producing countries over the next decade to provide hundreds of thousands of farmers with the tools, material and training necessary to dramatically increase yield and, by extension, farmer income.”

Butler also reports that Harvard will soon offer a course that will be a contender for an upcoming “Worthless” list: “Chocolate, Culture, and the Politics of Food.”